


Morgan’s First Breakup

by akasharpiegirl



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Awareness Week, Asexual Character, Awesome Pepper Potts, Break Up, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Cheating, F/M, First break up, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan’s first breakup, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Tony Stark, Teen Angst, Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Tony’s trying his best to make his daughter feel better ok, anyway, biromantic asexual teen morgan stark, morgan was cheated on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27323056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akasharpiegirl/pseuds/akasharpiegirl
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Morgan Stark has her first breakup.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)/Original Teen Male Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	Morgan’s First Breakup

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly didn’t expect this to be done before the end of asexual week, so... um, can this count as my work for the week? 
> 
> Rated teen for discussions of sex and cursing.   
> tw // cheating/breaking up, cursing, discussions of sex and aphobia. Proceed with caution, please be safe!

Morgan readjusted the notebook in the crooks of her elbows as she walked to the football bleachers during her break period. The football team didn’t have practice during her break and it shockingly wasn’t that big of a hangout, so it was the perfect place to study before her last half of classes. 

She walked up the rickety aluminum seating, all the way up to the top seat, where she sat against the tech stand. She propped her legs on the seat and pulled out a study guide for an exam she had in about an hour and began to look over it.

She briefly drummed her pencil on the notebook as she came to the end of her study session, before packing up her stuff to head back inside for third block about forty minutes later. 

Morgan just barely makes it out of the field gates and back on the sidewalk toward the main building when a girl says ‘I cannot wait for tonight, babe,’ somewhere from behind her. She turns around, her eyes searching for the source. And that’s when Morgan sees it. Her boyfriend, Evan, and a girl that she vaguely remembered from her freshman year biology class, were kissing against the front of the concessions building. 

Her eyes widen as she processes what she sees, a broken record of her Dad’s early criticisms of her about-to-be ex boyfriend playing in her mind, “ _ Teenage boys are evil backstabbing creatures. I don’t trust him, Morgan. _ ” Morgan tried to turn around and make it back to class, but the shock kept her still like a statue. She could only imagine what the look on her face looked like. She could only manage to turn around once her boyfriend saw her dumbfounded face looking at the scene. She did see and hear the other girl yell at Evan before managing to turn around, though.

She didn’t run ( ~~ that’d be too pathetic ~~ ), but she did walk as fast as she could. ...Morgan didn’t know how much longer she could take before becoming a panicky mess outside of her mind. 

Evan tugged against Morgan’s arm, causing her to stop walking and smack away his hand. “Don’t touch me!”

“Morgan I wasn’t—“

“You what?”, Morgan struggles to ask, her voice shaking as she tries to stand her ground. “You... you weren’t thinking? How long were you not thinking?”

“I didn’t know you hung around here,” Evan mutters.

“You didn’t... didn’t know I spent break here? Are you  _ really _ joking right now?”, she asks with a scoff. “We dated for a year and a half, wow. I swear I’ve mentioned it before. You’ve been over here with me before. How long?”

“Four months.”

“Four months?”, Morgan repeats. “God, I c-can’t believe my dad was right about you. Actually, no. I’m not shocked. He’s always right about this stuff.”

“Morgan, I’m—“

“I sincerely hope you don’t make the next girl you date feel like shit,” Morgan says just above a whisper before walking away. 

———

It was unnaturally quiet and tense at the kitchen table that night. Tony even tried breaking out the small talk (which he hates) and only got one word answers back. She didn’t even eat that much, her appetite was practically gone. Out of the fifteen minutes sat at the table, maybe five small bites of her food had been touched, compared to her parents’ plates that were almost cleaned off if not already. 

Tony’s phone starts to ring shortly after Morgan responds to the infamous ‘how was school’ question with an exasperated ’fine’, breaking the silence then. 

“It’s your physics teacher,” he looks at Morgan for a moment before answering the phone.

“Oh God,” Morgan mutters, staring at her Dad and searching for any strange looks on his face. And boy, did Morgan want to hear the other end of that call.

“Did she?”, Tony asks, raising an eyebrow at the teen. “That’s not like her.”

She could practically feel her mother’s eyes on her.

“You’ll let Morgan retake it?”, Tony responds a moment later. “Thank you for letting me know.” He presumably ends the call and sits it on the table before sighing. “According to her teacher, Morgan failed her physics exam today. He’s making an exception and she can retake it on Monday during break, if she so chooses to replace the grade. I’d suggest you do that, Morgan.”

“Morgan, that’s not like you,” Pepper tries to keep her tone calm. “What happened, honey?”

“I was distracted?”, Morgan says, coming out more like a question. “I don’t know. I just couldn’t think straight... I’m sorry. I’ll retake it on Monday, I promise.” 

“Thinking about that boyfriend of yours?”, Morgan’s Dad scoffs.

Morgan goes tense for a moment. She quickly picks up her unfinished dinner and gets up from the table.

“Where are you—Morgan?”, Tony asks, his voice going stern. 

“May I be excused?”, Morgan asks, tears surfacing in her eyes as she turns around with a clean plate in her hands. 

“No—“

Her Dad’s disapproval was interrupted by the sound of Morgan setting the plate down and running up the stairs.

“Morgan Hope Potts-Stark, you’re skating on thin ice right now!”, Tony yells right before she lets out an incoherent shout back and slams her bedroom door. He lets out a long-winded sigh before looking over to his wife, who had a chilling look of disapproval on her face.

“Damn, you pulled out her whole name and everything, for that?”, Pepper stares wide eyed at him. “Also, how did you manage to piss the Daddy’s Girl off, too? She never, and I truly mean never, gets mad at you.”

“Wha—You’re not with me?”

“No,” Pepper answers. “She’s never failed a test before, Tony. Never. I highly doubt this infraction will lead to more. You’re freaking out over nothing, honey.” She taps her fingers against the table. “Oh, and that reaction to your comment. Morgan’s been off all evening. She literally tensed up—even more than she already was—which I didn’t realize was even possible to do… when you asked about her boyfriend. My guess is, something went down with her and Evan before her exam. Argument, break up, I wouldn’t know.”

“She got into an argument with her boyfriend before class, so what?”

“You and I get in a fight before you have to attend a meeting at work. Said argument goes unresolved until we get time just ourselves again. How much time does your brain fixate on the argument instead of the current situation at hand between the argument and it’s resolution?”, she asks. “I know for me, it’s not easy to focus on a task at hand.”

“Oh,” Tony says before going eerily quiet.

“And by the off chance it’s the second possibility I mentioned... I know for a fact she doesn’t want the tough love from her ‘I know everything about teenage boys’ Dad right now,” Pepper says, getting up from the table. “No teenage girl wants to be told by her Dad that her hurt could’ve been avoided if she would’ve listened to their dear old Dad in the beginning. If I find out that you do, don’t be surprised if I tell you to sleep on the couch.” She grabs a half-full box of Kleenex off the end table before taking the first step on the stairwell.

“Where are you going?”

“To check on our girl,” she responds before walking the rest of the way up. “Give me a couple minutes with her before you come up if you feel called to give her a visit.”

She knocks on the door with her free hand, before pulling open the door and stepping inside. She spots a concoction of blankets and quilts sprawled out on Morgan’s bed, where she can only assume Morgan is hiding under. “You okay in there?”

No response.

“Morgan, can you stick your arm or leg out to prove to me that you’re breathing under there if you’re not up to seeing the world right now?”, Pepper asks.

The teenager’s left arm sneaks out from the blanket fort a moment later, followed by a forced sniffle.

“May I sit with you?”, Pepper inquires. “I yelled at Dad for his overreacting if you wanted to know if I was on your side.”

“Y-Yeah,” Morgan mumbles before pulling the blanket off of her face, to reveal Pepper’s blotchy faced daughter. 

“Oh, honey,” Pepper sympathizes as she sits next to her daughter, covering part of herself with a stray throw blanket that wasn’t tucked under Morgan. She puts the box of Kleenex on her lap. “Do you want to talk about it? I won’t freak out on you. I promise.”

It was quiet for about a minute.

“Um,” she mumbles. “I, uh, caught... caught Evan cheating on me during break.” Another tear falls down her face. 

Pepper’s eyes widened. “He  _ what?” _

“I was, uh, walking back to class and... and I came across him and another girl making out,” she struggled to say. “At the concessions building by the football field. I-I couldn’t stop thinking about it during class, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, baby. I promise,” Pepper’s voice drops into a quiet tone as Morgan practically melts into her mother’s comforting arms. 

“He promised... h-he promised me, Mom,” Morgan cries into Pepper’s arms. “H-He told me that my—“

“Sweetheart,” Pepper murmurs, stopping her daughter from finishing her sentence. “I’m so sorry. But it’s not your fault. He made the decision to do that, you didn’t. He’s his own person, he knew what he was doing.”

Morgan gives a small muffled whine after her mother said that.

“You want to know a little secret, Mo?”, Pepper hums as she rubs her daughter’s back after about two more minutes of silence settled over them. 

“Huh?”

“I know how you feel,” Pepper says sympathetically. “My first boyfriend cheated on me, my brother was the one who found out and told me. Worst thing is, he cheated on me with the girl who bullied me ever since my first day of pre-k.”

“Oh my God, Mama! That’s so mean,” Morgan lifts her head just slightly to say and lays her head back in her Mom’s arms. 

“And your grandpa, my stepdad, said I was overreacting for the way I felt after confronting my at-that-point-in-time not-ex boyfriend regarding the matter,” Pepper shrugs. “But, I need you to know that I won’t ever invalidate how you feel or react to this type of thing now or in the future down the line. ‘Cause I know how it feels and it sucks. I’m so sorry—“

“There’s gonna be more?”, Morgan grumbles as another tear falls down her face and onto Pepper’s arm. She pulls a tissue from the box.

“Who knows,” Pepper says. She pauses for a second because she thinks she hears creaking from the stairwell. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and whichever girl or guy you date next, will be the one. Who’ll love you for you and will respect your boundaries. But if you’re like I was, you’ll go through a few more bad ones before you find the right one.” She sees her husband walk in and sit at Morgan’s desk chair. “I dated three more guys before I started dating your Dad and two of those relationships absolutely sucked.”

While she can’t be certain, Pepper thinks that Morgan’s opened her eyes to see the new presence in her room. 

“I’m sorry I yelled, kiddo,” Tony says to her. 

“‘s okay,” Morgan says just barely above a whisper, her voice strained.

“Do you want to tell Dad what happened today or shall I?”, Pepper inquires, still rubbing her daughter’s back in an attempt to soothe. “I told him he can’t say he told you so or I’d make him sleep on the couch tonight, if that changes your answer.”

He cringes at his wife’s comment before giving an awkward smile.

“I caught E-Evan cheating on me,” the teenager sniffles. “Right when I was, um, walking to my physics class. I couldn’t stop... I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about it and cried on my way home. I’m not sure how I calmed myself down before parking and coming inside.”

His eyes widened and his mouth fell open as the words registered in his mind, “Hold on. Wait a minute, he did  _ what?  _ He cheated on you? Did I hear that correctly?”

“M-Mhm. I was walkin’ to class, and something kinda told me to turn around,” Morgan says. “A-And then I saw him and this girl, um, kissing… uh, against the concession stands—“ She lets out a sharp breath and more tears fall. “—they, um, were dating for four months.”

“Four months?”, Tony blinks and he clenched his right hand into a fist for a brief second before relaxing. “He was cheating on you for  _ four  _ months?”

“Y-Yeah,” Morgan mumbles. “You were right. I shoulda listened to you and I wouldn’t be hurt. You can, um, you can say it. Should be happy.”

Tony shoots an uncertain look at Pepper before looking back at his sad daughter, “Not how that works, kid.”

“Huh?”

“Just because my ‘Dad Intuition’ was  _ right  _ about that boy doesn’t necessarily mean I’m happy about it, Goona,” Tony shakes his head briefly, using finger quotes around ‘Dad intuition’. “I want nothing more in life when it comes to you to see you happy. It hurts me when I see you so upset, it really does. Tonight is no different… and I wish I could fix it and make it all better, Morgan. I really, really wish I could. I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“Kinda want you to hunt him down,” the teenager mutters, sitting up just slightly.

He suppresses a chuckle, “If it weren’t for me being afraid of your mother, I probably would already be halfway to his house right now.”

Pepper shoots him a look of disapproval followed by a roll eye.

Morgan falls back into her mother’s embrace and another batch of tears trail down her face, “It just… it hurts so bad, I-I don’t… I don’t know… I feel like this is all… all my fault.”

“Nuh-uh,” Tony says before Pepper can. “Stop that right now. We’re not doing all that. His actions were not your fault just because your heart was in the crossfire.”

“Your Dad’s right, Morgan.” Pepper pulls a Kleenex from the box, “Need another tissue?”

Morgan hums quietly as she takes it from her. “‘m hungry.”

“Well, you didn’t really eat much of your dinner,” Pepper nods. “Would you—“

“I already put up everything,” Tony interrupts. 

“Well, my sweet beautiful daughter, what would you like then?”, Pepper inquires. “We’ve got leftover pasta from Tuesday that I can heat up for you or there’s pepperoni pizza from that restaurant you love from yesterday night.”

“Pizza,” Morgan says, and sits up so her mother can vacate the room. 

“One or two slices?”, Pepper asks after standing up.

“Two.”

It’s quiet again once Pepper leaves the room.

“I know you hate the male species right now, but I’m still your Dad,” Tony breaks the silence. “You want to talk about it with me?”

Morgan looks at him and mumbles, “Sure.”

“Hm,” Tony hums as he stands up and walks to the side of her bed. “May I sit with you, kiddo?”

“I never said you couldn’t,” Morgan nods, scooting over to the left side so her Dad could sit next to her. She finds herself lost in thought as she stares at the hem of her blanket once he does sit next to her. Unaware that tears had fallen from her eyes again. 

“What are you thinkin’?”, he carefully prods, holding out his left hand for her.

“It all happened so fast, Dad, I-I—“, she pauses and holds her Dad’s hand. “I just… the more I think about it, I can’t figure out why  _ I _ didn’t figure it out?” She uses her free hand to grab a tissue and wipe her eyes. “His alibis, being so panicky when I picked up his phone… he hesitated when I told him I  _ loved _ him, Dad. And I didn’t… I didn’t even think anything of it, because he did say it back!” She tosses the tissue toward her trash can and it just barely misses. 

“You still think it’s your fault, don’t you?”, Tony asks. 

She nods.

“What makes you think that?”, he looks at his daughter. “I feel like I know, but do you mind telling me so I can help walk you away from that cliff?”

“My, um, asexuality?”, Morgan says quietly. “He didn’t say it was, but… got a sinking feeling.”

He shakes his head, “So you think that if it was because of your asexuality, it would then make him cheating on you,  _ your  _ fault?”

“I guess?”

“Your sexuality doesn’t predestine anything,” Tony disagrees. “Let me ask you this. Did you set clear boundaries at the beginning?”

“Yeah?”, Morgan says, looking at her Dad with confusion in her eyes. “That’s what you and Mom told me to do.”

“Then it’s not your fault,” Tony states. “He knew you were ace. He knew what you expected of the relationship, and he decided to take the stupid route anyway and cheat to fulfil what he wanted. He made that decision all on his own, not you. One of your brain cells didn’t sneak into his brain posing as his conscious telling him to do that. He did that all by himself.”

Morgan sighs, “What if I’m stuck?”

“What do you mean?”, Tony asks.

“Like, what if I don’t… what if I never, um, find someone that actually loves me for me?”, she mumbles, wiping the stray tears from her face.

“I have a feeling you will, Morgan,” Tony nods. “And I’m going to bawl my eyes out when you do marry whoever it is that loves you for who you are. I wish I could tell you if you knew them or when you’d meet them, so you could maybe get through this angst quicker, but… I can’t.”

Morgan lets go of his hand and wraps her arms around his waist so she could hug her father. 

“I have a feeling there’s going to come a day, when the person you’re dating will love you for exactly who you are. They’re going to love every little freckle on your nose, the little dance you do when you get good news, and every single ounce of who you are. ...even if it gets on their nerves from time to time,” Tony tries to coax her, rubbing her back lovingly. “And your asexuality? It’s not going to bother them one bit, because that’s a part of you and they’ll love every single part of you. All I know is, you’re seventeen. You’ve got some time to figure it out… and I  _ really  _ wish I could tell you when you’d meet them, but I can’t. It would save a lot of the heartbreak if you could know, huh?”

She hums quietly, “It still hurts.”

He nods, “I know it does and it’s going to hurt for awhile. But if you need to burn the stuff of his that you have to move forward closer to healing, I wouldn’t mind helping you. Mom and I can help you with deleting photos or blocking numbers if you need. Oh, and if you need to break out the Taylor Swift records and listen to the holy grail of breakup songs for a bit, that’s okay too.”

“We don’t have Taylor Swift records though?”, Morgan questions.

“On the contrary, your mother does,” Tony informs. “Two or three of them. She has Red, I know for sure.”

“Do I need to tell your Dad to sleep on the couch tonight or was he nice?”, Pepper inquires as she steps in the doorway, ignoring the Taylor Swift music comment. 

“No,” Morgan stifles a small laugh, letting go of her Dad and standing up. “He’s okay.”

“Good,” Pepper snickers. “Dinner’s downstairs, kid.”

She passes her mother and walks downstairs, leaving her parents still in her room.

“What’d you do?”, Pepper asks.

“Told her that her future husband or wife will love her for who she is and even though it hurts right now, that relationship is not indicative of her future,” Tony answers. 

“My Mama said that exact same thing to me when she found out about my first break up… well, minus the wife part. I didn’t know I was bi until college,” Pepper lets out a fond smile as Tony walks over to her. “Was she right?”

“Yeah,” he nods before giving his wife a chaste kiss. 

The two step away and Pepper’s facial expression twists into a grimace, “If Maguna’s anything like I was, the breakup will hit her harder tomorrow. Might be a good idea for one of us to go out and get ice cream… even though it’s late. Precautionary measures, you know.”

“I’ll go out and get some,” Tony offers. “Maybe you can tell her about your Taylor Swift records while I’m away.”

Pepper rolls her eyes and playfully hits his shoulder with the back of her palm, “I cannot help the fact that my teenage and college self invaded my heart the second I heard I Knew You Were Trouble on the radio.”

**The Next Day:**

It was around 11:30 and Tony had yet to see Morgan emerge from her bedroom. Though, when he did pass by her room about two hours ago, he heard the faint sound of the teenage heartbreak song ‘Fifteen’ and tears coming from behind the closed door.

Pepper had to go into work for a bit and so it was just him and his broken-hearted daughter at the lakehouse for a while. 

He was about to pour himself another cup of coffee when there’s a knock at the door.  _ Did Pepper lose her keys or something?  _ He sets the mug down, walks over the door, and opens the door—to Evan. His eyes widened when he saw him, “FRI, remind me to blacklist this kid from our gate access after he leaves.”

“Yes—“, FRIDAY barely gets out before she is interrupted.

“Mr. Stark, sir, I—“

“Save it,” Tony shakes his head, shutting the door when the kid invites himself inside. “You’ve got a lotta nerve showing up to an ex-avenger’s house after cheating on said ex-avenger’s daughter, you know.”

“I, um, I-I wanted to uh… apologize,” Evan stumbles over his words, looking down at his shoes. 

“Look at me when you’re speaking to me, Gardner,” Tony says, his voice stern. 

“I-I wanted, um, to possibly, uh, say sorry to Morgan,” he mumbles again, but looking at Tony this time. 

“Oh, wow,” Tony scoffs, folding his arms. “Yeah, no.”

“What do you mean ‘no’? I’m actually sorry!”, Evan raises his voice.

“I kinda think you’re lying there,  _ again,”  _ Tony states, his volume still quite low. “You hurt my daughter, and if I have the choice whether to let her be subjected to your lies or not, I’d always choose the latter, buddy.” Evan’s mouth gapes and the boy’s about to rebut when Tony scrunches his face up before snapping his fingers. “Actually, does your mother even know what happened between you two? I have a feeling she would never let you leave the house if she knew.”

“I—“

“Why don’t we check, hm?”, Tony inquires, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his contact list. “Mary Gardner, there she is.” He pressed the call button and put it on speaker while awaiting an answer. As soon as he had pressed the button, Evan protested with a quick ‘Mr. Stark, don’t!’

“Oh, hello, Tony,” Mary picks up. 

“Good morning, Mrs. Gardner,” Tony says, unusually calm. “I was calling because your son showed up at my house today.”

“Oh, yeah,” Mary says. “He said that Morgan and him got into a big fight at school yesterday and he went by to apologize. What’s the problem?”

“Do you know what the fight was over?”, Tony inquires. 

“No?”

“Well, it appears your son came by to apologize for  _ cheating  _ on her,” Tony informs, his voice slowly twisting into anger. 

“Joshua Evan Gardner, you  _ what!?”,  _ Mary yells. “Oh, you’re so grounded when you get home. What the hell were you thinking!”

“Mom, I—“

“Don’t even try all that, Evan,” Mary says through the phone. 

Tony raises his eyebrow at the interaction.

“Tony, is it alright if I talk to you one on one real quick?”, Mary asks then, her voice just a tad more calm.

Tony turns off the speakerphone and settles the phone between his head and shoulder, “Yeah.” 

“I’m really sorry that my son did what he did,” Mary sighs. “My husband and I raised him better than that. He may not be personally sorry, but I am. He really should’ve known better.”

“Thank you,” Tony says. His conversation and his thoughts make it impossible to hear what’s going on outside of his vantage point. “Well, I’m going to send your son on his way and go tend to my daughter.”

“I hope she feels better soon, I’m so sorry,” Mary says before the phone call ends. 

“ _ D-Dad?”,  _ Morgan’s shaky voice comes from behind him.

Tony’s arm drops to his side and he looks at the dumbfounded teenager with the tear stained eyes staring back at him and her ex before she runs back upstairs. 

“Shit,” Tony mutters under his breath before speaking to Evan. “Get out of my house. Now.”

He walks up to his daughter’s room once he sees Evan’s car drive off out the window. He knocks on the door before cracking it open. The teenage angst-ridden song ‘Picture to Burn’ got louder as he entered, spotting his daughter curled up in a ball on her bed as she hugged onto her throw pillow. “I didn’t invite him over… or in, for that matter, Mo, if that’s what you thought.”

“What’d you do?”, Morgan mumbles. 

_ And if you come around _

_ Sayin sorry to me _

_ My daddy’s gonna show you _

_ How sorry you’ll be _

“What the song just said,” Tony stifles a laugh. “I called his Mom. He’s probably going to have a real uncomfortable weekend now that Mary knows.”

“Good,” Morgan says quietly.

“What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?”, Tony asks. “You know, before… all that.”

  
  


**Sunday:**

“I haven’t seen the girl outside of her room since eight… for food,” Pepper says quietly, as the couple sat on the couch together. “Might be a good idea to reacquaint her with the world today, you think?”

“Yeah… She does have school tomorrow,  _ and  _ has a class with that ex,” Tony nods. “Probably the best thing to do.”

“I don’t want to get her out of bed, you have more patience than me,” Pepper says, glancing at the stairwell. “You do it.”

“Oh, wow.  _ I  _ have more patience than you? That’s a first,” Tony teases. 

“Please?”

“Yeah, I’ll try to convince her,” Tony nods before finding his way to Morgan’s room again at quarter to noon. He knocks on the door before stepping inside, once again to find Morgan covered by blankets as her head was buried into a pillow. 

He draws up her curtains, letting in sunlight to her room. 

She whines at the sight of sunlight and rolls over onto her left side.

“I’m about to run some errands, Maguna. Want to come with me? Maybe grab some lunch on the way home?”, Tony asks. “We can get Charley’s, or whatever you want.”

“You’re just tryin’ to get me out of bed,” Morgan grumbles. 

“Absolutely correct,” Tony deadpans. 

“I don’t wanna.”

“I know you don’t  _ want  _ to,” Tony nods as he walks back over to the entry side of her room. “But what would you rather happen? Try to get reacquainted with the world today so it’s easier to go to school tomorrow or not be prepared and have to face the world tomorrow at school when you have to see your ex in your second block and have to see his sister at dance practice?”

“Why can’t you just withdraw me from that school and homeschool me? That seems a whole lot easier,” Morgan whines, looking up at her Dad. 

“Because,” Tony pauses. “In order to start the healing process, you have to reintroduce yourself to the world and have the confidence to face your demons… even if it’s shaky.” He sighs then. “Also the fact that in the  _ wonderful  _ state of New York, withdrawing a kid from a school and moving them to another takes about three weeks to complete. So you’d still have to deal with this big scary thing you don’t want to face for a bit. So make like Marie Kondo and find something you want to do that sparks joy because I doubt laying in bed all day listening to breakup songs is going to bring you any joy or help you heal all that much in the long run.”

“Fine,” Morgan mutters before quite literally rolling out of bed. 

———

The father-daughter duo return to the lakehouse about three hours later, Morgan lets out a genuine laugh as she pulls the half full cup of peach lemonade by her side as Tony opens the door. She was also holding a newly bought Build-A-Bear in her other hand. Tony held three reusable grocery bags in either elbow. 

“Aw, look at that beautiful smile!”, Pepper exclaims. “I haven’t seen that in a few days. How’d it go, huh?” 

Morgan sits down and finds comfort in her mother’s arms as Tony sets the cold items from the bags in their fridge or freezer. “It started out kind of crappy… she cried in the car for a bit. Went grocery shopping and since the only Charley’s close to us is at a mall, well… that teddy bear came out with her.”

“Her name is Hope and she smells like thin mints, Mom!”, Morgan exclaims. 

Pepper smiles at her daughter. 

Tony takes a seat next to his girls, wrapping his right arm around Pepper’s shoulders. 

“How’d you do that? She’s happy?”, Pepper whispers to Tony.

“Had to remind her there’s a lot of good things this world has to offer. You know, like peach lemonade from a Philly cheesesteak joint and Build-A-Bear,” he whispers back. “I don’t know if her happiness will stay for long, but it’s a start.”

“You’re a good Dad, you know that?”, Pepper smiles at her husband.

“I try to be,” he nods with a small smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked, please leave kudos, comment, and share with your pepperony fam lovin’ friends!
> 
> Hang with me on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


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